May 3, 2013

A couple of Nashville local music tidbits to mention before we get to the show listings

Hotpipes’ long-awaited new album Dust is now out! Grab it on their bandcamp or website.

Sugar Sk*_*lls also has a new album, called Intermission full of his undeniable 8-bit goodness. Grab it on his bandcamp as well.

NORM (aka Dave Paulson of The Privates, The Pink Spiders, and My So-Called Band) released his debut solo album via bandcamp, but in an email statement he says that while he initially thought his home mastering job sounded just fine, a few days later he realized that it just wasn’t up to par. So, while the ‘rough’ version remains on his bancamp, the re-mastered version will be up “sometime in the month of May.” This version “will be much kinder to your eardrums no matter where you listen to it.” Needless to say, these songs are all VERY GOOD.

Shari Rowe, Midnight Riders, Sugar Pants Johnson, Honey Locust, Scale Model, Ryegrass, and Roy Ira @ Sevier Park Festival Corner Music Stage. 11am-7pm, FREE.*Please note: this event is rain or shine and there is a large tent over the stage/crowd area and the beer gardens, so you can still attend and stay dry in the areas that matter- music & beer!*

March 26, 2013

This year’s East Nashville Beer Festival was a complete success! I headed over with Lauren and a few bandmates and friends on Saturday ready to be amazed, and amazed I was! This festival has become one of my favorite days of the year, and Saturday did not disappoint. Lauren has a full review of everything over at Old Red Boots, but here are my top picks, with more personal insight:

Top 5 beers at ENBF 2013:

1.Kentucky Ale: Bourbon Barrel AleThis is consistently my favorite bourbon barrel aged beer. You get a nice woody, oaky bourbon flavor up front, then a subtle hop character comes through, finishing with a lingering bourbon sweetness. It’s a symphony of all the right flavors.

2. Starr Hill: PsychokilterEasily one of the best Scotch ales I’ve had. This beer is all about the malt- as it should be- but isn’t overly sweet. Robust and somewhat earthy. Color me impressed!

3. Calfkiller: Classic SpiderCalfkiller has burst onto the TN brewing scene in the past few years with a vengeance. All of their beers are fermented with the same Belgian yeast blend, which gives it a distinctive fruity note that says “this is Calfkiller!” Classic Spider was a special blend of their Brown Recluse and a stout, aged in a bourbon (or maybe it was whiskey?) barrel. I’m not sure if this will become a regularly produced beer, but I wouldn’t mind if it did!

4. Rivertown: Roebling PorterThis is a vanilla & espresso infused imperial porter, and it might as well be liquid dessert. It’s chocolatey, sweet, warming and simply delicious. It’s one of their flagships, too! Sadly, Rivertown doesn’t distribute to TN. Update: turns out Rivertown DOES distribute to TN- you can get them at Craft Brewed!

5. Yazoo: Hop Project #70 Dry-hopped with Stella hopsYazoo is known for their creative Hop Project series, in which they use the same malt bill, but different varieties of hops at different boiling schedules for each batch. #70 is the latest batch and (from what I was told at the tap) for this cask they dry-hopped it with a unique Australian hop variety called Stella. As I understand it this was a special cask that Yazoo made for the ENBF, but Hop Project #70 used Stella hops during the boil as well, and is available in retail stores now.

Honorable Mentions:

Deschutes: Black Butte Porter and Northwest Pale AleDeschutes is an Oregon brewery that sadly hasn’t made it to TN yet, so I was unfamiliar even with these two flagship beers. The Black Butte Porter has a slightly nutty character that you’d expect in a nut brown ale, but yet it’s a porter! The Northwest Pale Ale stuck out to me because they backed away from the assertive hop bitterness that most APA’s are known for, and went for a well-balanced pale ale with a nice hoppy aroma.

Left Hand: Smokejumper Imperial PorterReactions to this beer amongst my peers were mixed. For me it was a fine smokey, bacon-y porter. I’ve not met a smoked beer that I didn’t like and this was no exception. Some in my group thought it reminded them too much of a campfire, while others wanted more bacon flavor.

Straight To Ale: Hellfire Quadrupel and Monkeynaut IPA dry-hopped with CitraThis Huntsville brewery produces some fine beers. Their Belgian-style quadrupel, called Hellfire, was warming, earthy, and robust. They also had a special cask of their Monkeynaut IPA that was dry-hopped with Citra hops. The tropical fuity aroma was simply blissful!

French Broad: 13 Rebels ESBOne of my favorite styles of beer is a classic English ESB, or Extra-Special Bitter. I was familiar with French Broad but hadn’t tried their ESB. 13 Rebels was an enjoyable and worthy example of the style. Well-balanced and very session-able, as an ESB should be.

Least Favorite Beer:

New Belgium’s surprise quadrupel.I unfortunately didn’t take note of exactly what this beer was aged in or what was supposed to be special about it. It was a quad that had (I think) been aged in some sort of wood barrels. What I do remember though, is that is was too blatantly alcoholic up front. There are 10, 11, even 12% ABV beers that still manage to not allow the boozy alcoholic flavor to overrun the character of the beer. This one though, just screamed “BOOZE” at my palate. That being said, New Belgium is one of the finest, and also largest craft breweries in the nation. Everything about them pretty much rules.

February 28, 2013

In the wake of the tragic death of Freakin’ Weekend founder Ben Todd, those who worked with him on it have stepped in to make sure this year’s installment of the festival/celebreation/freak-out will go off without a hitch. Indeed, yesterday the full schedule was posted over at Nashville’s Dead, and this year is gonna freak harder than ever before. The above poster was designed by Julia Bee and Ben Todd, and will be available to purchase at the pop-up record store Friday and Saturday. This year they introduced the option to buy a full weekend, three-day pass which guarantees entry into all three shows, and will save you a few bucks compared to buying individual tix for each night. Grab those here, because with this lineup you won’t want to miss a single act! Here’s a quick rundown of the lineup, but be sure to head over to Nashville’s Dead for full details.

February 19, 2013

It’s almost spring again, and in East Nashville in recent years, that has come to mean BEER FEST. I’ve been to the East Nashville Beer Festival every year of its existence and it’s gotten better every time. Most of you probably know I’m a homebrewer and avid beer lover, so trust me when I say these folks really know how to put on a great beer festival. The list of breweries this year includes Deschutes, Good People, French Broad, Lagunitas, Highland Brewing, New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Rivertown, Schmaltz, Brooklyn, Southern Tier, Starr Hill, Terrapin, Straight To Ale, Green Flash, and many more including all your favorite locals such as Yazoo, Calfkiller, Fat Bottom, Turtle Anarchy, Jackalope, etc… It’s well worth the $50 price because there’s simply no other way to experience so many great beers at once, and many of the breweries have very special, limited-edition (often cask-aged) brews that you’d never find in a store or at a bar. There will also be plenty of food trucks onsite to help fill your belly with yummy snacks in addition to the beer. The list includes Biscuit Love, Wrapper’s Delight, Riff’s, Hoss’s Loaded Burgers, and the Grilled Cheeserie to name a few.

This year also boasts a very special food/beer pairing tent sponsored by Whole Foods! It does require a separate ticket for an extra $45 but I’ve no doubt it will be worth it! The ENBF is also a part of Nashville Craft Beer Week, which boasts even more awesome in-store free tastings and other specialty events, so be sure to check out the full calendar, because the madness starts on March 18th.

The festival did not increase the size of the event this year, but they’ve “…doubled our bathrooms, doubled our hand wash sinks, increased drinking water supply, upgraded glassware (6oz glass snifter), and overall will be creating the best venue possible.” If you had issues with any of those things last year, fear not- it’ll be way better this year.

SO, BELIEVE ME- HAVE YOUR FINGER ON THE BUTTON AT 9AM SHARP THIS THURSDAY. This event will sellout in less than an hour, and probably even less than 30 minutes. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells out in 10 minutes. Trust me, I had an absolute blast last year with my lady Old Red Boots, and we’ll be back in full force this year. You do NOT want to miss this!

The ENBF and Craft Beer Week are all products of Rhizome Productions. Keep your eyes on these folks, because they’re doing some amazing stuff for the beer scene in Nashville, Tennessee, and the southeast in general!

P.S. In case you missed it yesterday, the official lineup for Soundland 2012 was released. The headliner is My Morning Jacket, with support from Divine Fits, Young the Giant, Johnny Corndawg, JD McPherson, The Weeks, Kopecky Family Band, Wild Cub, Night Beds, PUJOL, Nikki Lane, Mystery Twins, and Kansas Bible Company. A fine lineup featuring a good mix of established locals, up-and-coming locals, and THE go-to outdoor festival act MMJ. Good job Jason, Janet, and all others who work so hard on this event every year!

August 1, 2012

The waters surrounding 2012’s Soundland have been eerily quiet the past few months, but yesterday the announcement was made that the festival (summit? conference?) has been scaled back to one day, October 6th, and will take place downtown on the Lawn at Riverfront Park. It sounds like the event is moving toward more of a standard outdoor festival vibe than the SXSW-style/club-hopping-industry-showcase vibe of years past. The official lineup announcement is tomorrow, August 2nd. However, they rolled the dice and ran a special earlybird ticket sale for 48 hours only- $30. From the email blast:

The all-new SoundLand features a one-day outdoor extravaganza October 6, 2012 with music, art, food, and more in our biggest venue yet.

I’ve no doubt the shrinkage can be boiled down to an issue of quality vs. quantity, and this festival is run by some talented and smart people, so they chose to make Soundland 2012 one totally awesome day, rather than 4 pretty good days. I’m looking forward to the lineup announcement!

June 7, 2011

If you’re a Nashvillian and even remotely connected to the music scene, you’ve probably heard by now that the annual Next Big Nashville festival/conference has changed their name to Soundland. Or at least Next Big Nashville Presents: Soundland. Click that link to visit their website, and you’ll notice that most everything still includes “Next Big Nashville” in the name, and the old logo is on the banner in the new logo. The event will become somewhat more focused on one area of the city- 8th Ave South. That means Mercy Lounge/Cannery/Third Man Records/The Basement/Grimey’s, but also 12th & Porter, MAI, Station Inn, Public Square Park, and others, with “fieldtrips” and artist-led workshops/seminars. There will also be a larger-than-ever outdoor main stage. All that and more can be found on the website’s FAQ.

All of what they’re doing sounds great- it’s exactly where the festival needs to go IMO. But I’m not sold on the name. Soundland sounds like a game to me. More specifically, a board game. I guess that’s because of Candyland. It just doesn’t sit right with me. Don’t get me wrong, I love this festival and city/music scene and will support them/work with them however I can. And I hope I’m wrong about the name… but I just can’t say “Yes, Soundland is a good name for this event” at this point in time. I look forward to the announcement of more details, especially the lineup. Make sure you follow them on twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

As usual, I will be photographing this year at Bonnaroo for the Scene/Cream, so I will not be posting this Thur.-Sun. I may or may not have something worth blogging about tomorrow, so we’ll see. If not, I bid you adieu until next week.

If you are a band or artist, or represent a band or artist and I've posted something of yours that you don't want posted, please let me know by emailing me at stevecrossrock[at]gmail[dot]com. I will gladly take it down.